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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The Great Bi-Polar Catholicism

"The principle of subsidiarity must remain closely linked to the principle of solidarity and vice versa, since
the former without the latter gives way to social privatism, while the
latter without the former gives way to paternalist social assistance
that is demeaning to those in need."

-Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, (no. 58)

For many on the left,
Paul Ryan is a menace, the very embodiment of cold, indifferent
Republicanism, and for many on the right, he is a knight in shining
armor, a God-fearing advocate of a principled conservatism.

Mitt Romney's choice of Ryan as running mate has already triggered
the worst kind of exaggerated hoo-hah on both sides of the political
debate. What is most interesting, from my perspective, is that Ryan, a
devout Catholic, has claimed the social doctrine of the Church as the
principal inspiration for his policies. Whether you stand with First Things and affirm that such a claim is coherent or with Commonweal
and affirm that it is absurd, Ryan's assertion prompts a healthy
thinking-through of Catholic social teaching in the present economic
and political context.

Ryan himself has correctly identified two principles as foundational for Catholic social thought, namely subsidiarity and solidarity. The first, implied throughout the whole of Catholic social theory but given clearest expression in Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, is that in the adjudication of matters political and economic, a preferential option should be given to the more local level of authority.

For example, when seeking to solve a traffic-flow issue in a suburb,
appeal should be made to the municipal authority and not to the
governor, even less to the Congress or the President. Only when a
satisfactory solution is not achieved by the local government should one
move to the next highest level of authority, etc. This principle by no
means calls into question the legitimacy of an over-arching federal
power (something you sense in the more extreme advocates of the Tea
Party), but it does indeed involve a prejudice in favor of the local.
The principle of subsidiarity is implied in much of the "small is
beautiful" movement as well as in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which exhibits a steady mistrust of imperial power and a steady sympathy for the local, the neighborhood, the small business.

Now in Catholic social theory, subsidiarity is balanced by
solidarity, which is to say, a keen sense of the common good, of the
natural and supernatural connections that bind us to one another, of our
responsibility for each other. I vividly remember former New York
Governor Mario Cuomo's speech before the Democratic National Convention
in San Francisco in 1984, in the course of which he effectively
lampooned the idea that individual self-interest set utterly free would
automatically redound to the general welfare.

Catholic social thought does indeed stand athwart such "invisible
hand" theorizing. It also recognizes that, always in accord with
subsidiarity, sometimes the federal and state governments are the
legitimate vehicles by which social solidarity is achieved. Does anyone
today, outside of the most extreme circles, really advocate the repeal
of Social Security, unemployment compensation, medical benefits for
the elderly, food stamp programs, etc.?

Solidarity without subsidiarity can easily devolve into a kind of
totalitarianism whereby "justice" is achieved either through outright
manipulation and intimidation or through more subtle forms of social
engineering. But subsidiarity without solidarity can result in a society
marked by rampant individualism, a Gordon Gekko "greed is good"
mentality, and an Ayn Rand/Nietzschean "objectivism" that positively
celebrates the powerful person's dominance of the weak.

Catholic social theory involves the subtle balancing of these two
great principles so as to avoid these two characteristic pitfalls. It
does, for example, consistently advocate the free market,
entrepreneurial enterprise, profit-making; and it holds out against all
forms of Marxism and extreme socialism. But it also insists that the
market be circumscribed by clear moral imperatives and that the wealthy
realize their sacred obligation to aid the less advantaged. This last
point is worth developing.

Thomas Aquinas teaches that ownership of private property is to be allowed but that the usus
(the use) of that privately held wealth must be directed toward the
common good. This is because all of the earth and its goods belong,
finally, to God and must therefore be used according to God's purpose.
Pope Leo XIII made this principle uncomfortably concrete when he
specified, in regard to wealth, that once the demands of necessity and
propriety have been met, the rest of what one owns belongs to the poor.
And in saying that, he was echoing an observation of John Chrysostom: "
If you have two shirts in your closet, one belongs to you; the other
belongs to the man who has no shirt."

In his wonderful Orthodoxy, written over a hundred years ago but
still remarkably relevant today, G.K. Chesterton said that Catholicism
is marked through and through by the great both/and principle. Jesus is
both divine and human. He is not one or the other; nor is he some bland
mixture of the two; rather, he is emphatically one and emphatically the
other. In a similar way, the Church is radically devoted to this world
and radically devoted to the world to come. In the celibacy of its
priests, it is totally against having children, and in the fruitful
marriage of its lay people, it is totally for having children.

In its social teaching, this same sort of "bi-polar extremism" is on
display. Solidarity? The Church is all for it. Subsidiarity? The Church
couldn't be more enthusiastic about it. Not one or the other, nor some
bland compromise between the two, but both, advocated with equal vigor.
I think it would be wise for everyone to keep this peculiarly Catholic
balance in mind as the debate over Paul Ryan's policies unfolds.

Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire, and the Rector/President of Mundelein Seminary.

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